NJ Transit will charge $98 for bus and train service to MetLife Stadium on World Cup match days, lowering the price again just hours before tickets were set to go on sale. The tickets were scheduled to appear on the NJ Transit app at midnight on May 13, after the agency first announced a $150 fare and then last week said the price would be $105.
New York and New Jersey are preparing for eight World Cup matches at MetLife Stadium in June and July, and the transit price has become one of the first flashpoints around how fans will get there. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she would provide $6 million to cut match-day bus shuttle tickets to $20 from $80, while the New York-New Jersey host committee said it will expand those shuttle tickets to 18,000 on non-school match days and 12,000 on school days, far above its original proposal of 10,000 per match.
Sherrill framed the lower NJ Transit fare as a relief for riders and taxpayers. In a post on the evening of May 12, 2025, she said it was “good news” that the agency was lowering World Cup train tickets to $98 without New Jersey taxpayer money, and said it had been important from the start that the state not put all FIFA hosting costs on New Jerseyans. Earlier this month, she told NorthJersey.com that New Jersey should not absorb the full cost of staging the tournament.
The price cut comes after the original $150 ticket drew criticism and after separate transit plans on the New York side also shifted. The host committee will use school buses for the shuttle service, and Hochul said about 20 percent of bus tickets will be reserved exclusively for New York residents. New Jersey officials said NJ Transit is charging World Cup-goers at cost for the service, with the higher price reflecting extra security and labor costs as well as the expense of providing and storing additional buses needed to move 40,000 people to each match.
That spending sits atop a much larger bill already absorbed by New Jersey. The state has approved up to $135 million in capital transportation spending tied to World Cup expenses, and officials say it has already spent more than $300 million on new infrastructure, upgrades and modifications required at MetLife Stadium and other costs linked to hosting the tournament. The fare change does not erase that outlay, but it does show how quickly the tournament’s transit plan has had to adjust under public pressure.
For riders, the immediate answer is simple: the ticket will cost less than first promised, and the sale opens at midnight. For state officials, the bigger test is whether they can keep thousands moving to MetLife Stadium at a price the public will accept while the tournament’s most visible transportation plans are still being rewritten.
